Lipstick Jungle vrs Cashmere Mafia

I finally got to watch a sneak preview of Lipstick Jungle last night. Don’t ask me how but I managed to find the whole pilot episode on a website and it is just as good as I envisioned it to be. Lipstick Jungle is based on the fourth book by Sex and the City author, Candace Bushnell. The glossy drama features the lives of three 40 something women who more or less run Manhattan. The stars of the show are Brooke Shields as Wendy Healy, a hot movie exec who is succeeding everywhere apart from her marriage, Lindsay Price as Victory Ford who is an independent and sassy fashion designer who gets embroiled with a powerful millionaire and Kim Raver as Nico Neilly, the lethal editor of a top glossy magazine who embarks on a dangerous extra-marital affair with a younger man. I read the book a couple of years ago and I was surprised by how good it was and I fell in love with all three female protagonists. The TV series captured the warmth that the women hold towards each other and each character oozes of charm.

Coincidentally or not – there is another show hopping about called Cashmere Mafia that has been produced by Darren Star (good buddies with Candace Bushnell for 20 years both pictured above) who is infamous for bringing S&TC to life on the small screen. The series stars Lucy Liu and is based on four successful NYC ladies who happen to be best mates. Of course it has been dubbed the thinking woman’s S&TC. Now let me give you the lowdown here. According to The New York Times, Bushnell had written parts of the book in Star’s house in East Hampton. Star put in a bid to secure the rights for Lipstick Jungle only to lose out to NBC. Jubilant about the impending thought of having another hit series on her hands, Bushnell threw a mini celebratory drinks party while receiving congratulatory phone calls from family and close friends. Everyone apart from Star. She was perplexed and confused, why hadn’t her close buddy and TV spar, Darren called her? So she put in a call to him. It turns out that Star had news of his own; he also had a show that had been picked up. It was called Cashmere Mafia and very similar to Lipstick Jungle. Needless to say Bushnell was shocked – she knew that Star had tried to buy the rights to Lipstick Jungle but she had no idea that he was working on a show of his own. Oh yeah, the two of them are no longer so tight.

Coincidence or total plagiarism? Read the whole article in The New York Times and tell me what you think?

Feast your eyes on clips from Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia and see how they measure up.

Lipstick Jungle



Stars: Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan), Kim Raver (24), Lindsay Price (Beverly Hills 90210)
Location: New York
Writer: Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City)
Producer: Lisa Melamed (Party of Five)

Cashmere Mafia



Stars: Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal), Frances O’Connor (The Importance of Being Earnest), Miranda Otto (The War of the Worlds), Bonnie Somerville (The OC)
Location: New York
Writer: Kevin Wade (Maid in Manhattan, Working Girl)
Producer: Darren Star (Sex and the City, Beverley Hills 90120, Melrose Place)